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REPORT: Little has changed in oil drilling safety since BP oil spill

This week, Oceana released a report which indicates the oil drilling industry has not done much to improve safety since the BP disaster which leaked hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Florida — "It was tragic," Jacksonville Beach resident Erin Handy said, remembering about how she went to Pensacola to help clean up after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster nine years ago.

"Dead marine life, dead birds washing up," she recalled. "That summer, Pensacola was a ghost town."

Handy now works for Oceana, a national group that promotes healthy oceans. 

This week, Oceana released a report which indicates the oil drilling industry has not done much to improve safety since the BP disaster which leaked hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

"Very little has changed, really making it no safer to drill anywhere than it was during the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster," Handy said. 

Now the country is waiting on the federal government to release a five-year leasing plan for oil and gas. 

"We don't know what's going to be in that plan," Handy noted. "We hope the coasts of Florida are not included in that plan to expand exploration and drilling of our coasts."

However, the draft version of that federal plan did indeed include Florida and 90 percent the nation's coasts.

Oceana is opposed to oil drilling, so are all of Florida's congressional delegates, and Florida Gov. Ron Desantis. The opposition crosses party lines. 

Why? Concerns about environmental and economic impacts.

Jen Lomberk is the Matanzas Riverkeeper in St. Johns County. She said, "Our state's economy depends on a healthy tourism industry and a healthy tourism industry depends on healthy beaches."

Supporters of oil drilling say it's now safer and it will help bring jobs. Ned Bowman with Florida Petroleum Marketers Association in Tallahassee told First Coast News in November that Florida would benefit from offshore oil drilling.

"You get more fuel into the system. So you have more access to crude," Bowman said.

But many people -- including Handy -- remember the BP oil spill all too well and don't want the risk of that closer to home. 

"Florida's coastlines are at risk if offshore drilling is expanded to anywhere," she said. 

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